Ramesh Shrestha / Foreign Affairs: Why the UN Can't End Wars

Please find herewith an article which might be of interest to ex-UNICEFers. If you find it relevant please share in our routine web bulletin. Thanks. Ramesh

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Source: commons.wikimedia.org

A peace to keep

The deployment of a small team of UN ‘guards’ in 1945 to monitor the truce between the Israel and its Arab neighbor gave birth to the present-day UN peacekeeping contingent. Currently there are UN peacekeeping missions in 14 countries charged with maintaining peace and security while protecting civilians, disarm militias, and many other nearly impossible tasks. On many occasions various warring factions such as in Somalia also have attacked UN peacekeepers, while at other times it had to helplessly watch atrocities such as in Rwanda and in Srebrenica. The inability of UN peacekeepers to solve local problems earned them various name calling titles such as ‘United Vacationers’, ‘Beach Keepers’, ‘Parasites’ and even ‘Neocolonial’! 

The role of UN peacekeeping missions have been expanded to include economic development projects, land-mine removal, conducting elections, administration, gender education, etc. with ‘enforcement mandate’ – in other words taking over local governance to a certain extent. Let us be reminded that the peacekeeping missions is always at the mercy of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and has no permanent source of funding.

The peacekeepers are deployed in areas fraught with ethnic and religious conflicts or in areas where there are multiple claims on local resources such as mining. These basic causes can only be resolved by full compromise between the warring factions. The role of UN peacekeepers in such circumstances can only act as a truce. In most cases a permanent solution is in the hands of the P5 member states. Attached article in the Foreign Affairs might be of interest ….. 

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